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Colombo (AFP) – The Sri Lankan stock market suspended trading this Monday, April 25, after a 13% crash amid the deep economic and political crisis in the country, which led the country’s influential Buddhist leaders to call for the resignation of the questioned government.
Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, and its 22 million people are facing widespread shortages of basic necessities such as food, fuel and medicine due to a lack of dollars to finance imports.
April 25 was the first day of trading on the Colombo Stock Exchange since the New Year’s holiday week in Sri Lanka and the five-day close following the rise in interest rates and the announcement of the default on the country’s foreign debt. country amounting to 51,000 million dollars.
But before the wave of sales that led to a stock market crash, the operation was suspended.
Shares have lost almost 40% of their value since January and the local currency, the rupee, has fallen more than 35% against the dollar in the last month.
The serious crisis has sparked riots and protests calling for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda, accused of corruption and mismanagement.
Buddhist leaders call for government resignation
This Monday the country’s Buddhist religious leaders made an unprecedented call for a resignation of the government to replace it with an interim executive.
“The country is fast becoming a failed state,” leading monk Medagama Dhammananda told reporters in the city of Kandy.
Dhammananda said that other leaders of different Buddhist factions also joined this call to set up an interim government to “pull the country out of the crisis.”
This country is mostly Buddhist and the clergy have so far been one of the main supporters of President Rajapaksa.
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